1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, having a recording function of recording a still image and a moving image, for displaying a through image on a display device, for example, the imaging apparatus being for controlling display onto the display device on the through image of an imaging area according to image sizes of a still image and a moving image set by a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the recent years, there is commercialized a video camera having a function capable of not only imaging and recording a still image but also imaging and recording a moving image over a long period of time. It is possible not only to reproduce and display the shot moving image on a monitor provided in the video camera but also to reproduce and display that image by a television receiver of a fixed-pixel system such as a liquid crystal display or of a cathode ray tube system or the like, which is connected to the video camera Then, in the recent years, a television receiver capable of displaying a high-vision image (HD: High Definition) is widely used, and in response thereto, there is commercialized a video camera capable of imaging and recording not only an SD (Standard Definition) image, which is called a standard image quality, but also the high-vision image.
To change a subject slightly, an aspect ratio of the high-vision image generally is 16:9 while that of the SD image is 4:3. Therefore, a video camera having a function as an electronic view finder for displaying on a monitor images (through images) which are for confirming an object image to be imaged and which are sequentially outputted from an imaging element (in this way, it becomes necessary to take a look over a finder during imaging) includes many products so designed that both an image having the aspect ratio of 16:9 and that having the aspect ratio of 4:3 are displayable.
Moreover; in the conventional video camera, through images to be displayed on a monitor while waiting for imaging may include a moving image having an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a still image having an aspect ratio of 4:3. In this case, imaging modes are switched by a power supply switch, a mode change-over switch, etc., to switch between the through image having the aspect ratio of 16:9 and that having the aspect-ratio of 4:3. However such a mode change-over process requires complicated operations by the user, and thus, it takes a long period of time.
In a certain conventional imaging apparatus, in order to alleviate the complicated operations by the user or to immediately determine a recording image region according to switching of the images photographed by the user, a guide frame is added according to whether image data to be recorded is the moving image or the still image, or according to a recording state, i.e., whether a parallel image recording (both the moving image and the still image) is performed, and the guide frame is dynamically switched and displayed.
However, in the above-described imaging apparatus, as a through image, a still-image-compatible guide frame and a moving-image-compatible guide frame are merely displayed in a photographing-image displaying region. Even when a user wishes to shoot the still image, the through image displayed on the monitor is not a still-image-use through image in an imaging area corresponding to an image size that is actually recorded. Likewise, even when the user wishes to shoot the moving image, the through image displayed on the monitor is not a moving-image-use through image in an imaging area corresponding to an image size that is actually recorded.
That is, in the above-described imaging apparatus, even when the user refers to the through image that is displayed on the monitor and that waits for imaging so as to perform still-image shooting or moving-image shooting, the still-image-use guide frame and the moving-image-use guide frame are displayed all the time. Thus, the user is not able to intuitively recognize the imaging area to be imaged, and is not necessarily able to see a through image that is said to be easy to see.